“It makes some sense: Cut your editorial staff by 80 percent, and there’s at least a decent chance that Web traffic will tumble. And that’s just what has happened at the new online-only Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Page views are down about 20 percent in the week since the newspaper killed its print edition and became an online-only publication.”

“There is a thread on boycottnovell about the “boycott boycottnovell crowd”. Shane made his usual comment that he thinks affiliations and backgrounds aren’t important and the only thing that matters is that we can make good, solid arguments for our positions.”

“I responded that it is somewhat interesting and natural to inquire about someone’s background, especially if they are a regular poster who is passionate about his views. I also wrote, that in the case of “Dan O”Brian”, his invectives often cloud his posts and more civility would be helpful here.”

“I could also add to the above that “Dan O’Brian” has a penchant for attributing malice where there is none. I saw, in the “boycott boycottnovell” thread, his “proofs” of your malice and, to me, they were proof of nothing of the sort.”

“That seems as clear as it will be unless you have the occasion to post a follow-up. Nonetheless, “Dan O’Brian” wants to lambast you for not posting a follow-up article. It’s yet another case where he is right in a narrow sense but where he fails to reconcile his view with the big picture.”

“This seems to be a consistent problem with him. I also note some past threads where he corrected some inaccuracies in your articles and went on to proudly proclaim that “Mono is free software.” Again, he is technically correct there, but he fails to understand the possibility that this might easily be some kind of judo trick by Microsoft against free software. “

“What better way to fight free software than with free software. Free software that is a second class citizen to proprietary software is OK for him? He also ignores explicit Microsoft quotes that they consider Mono to be covered by their patents and that they reserve the right to sue.”

“I suppose that he also has no answer for the Microsoft patent litigation regarding Tomtom’s use of the FAT filesystem in the Linux kernel. That certainly weakens assertions that Microsoft wouldn’t bring a patent suit against free software. It seems that “Dan O’Brien” is too entrenched in his opinions to notice.”

“The more I read about Adam Smith, the more impressed I became with his life and his work. For years, many thought that Smith had been advocating a right wing ideological approach to open markets, reflecting a kind of survival of the fittest competition in which anything goes. ” http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2009…

“The newspaper business is in the can, papers are closing left and right, and lots of others are laying off staffers. But perhaps some of those who have their newspaper gigs can get in on a hot growth industry: ghostwriting Twitter messages for celebrities.” http://techdirt.com/arti…

“Liberal think tanks and advocacy organizations formed during the Bush/Cheney regime are working in close and well-funded coordination as a PR messaging machine for the Obama Administration’s foreign and domestic policies.” http://www.prwatch.org/node/8300

“If you are in London, make a practice of regularly looking at CCTV cameras. Occasionally discussing them with your companions or passersby would be a good habit too. If everyone gets accustomed to seeing people look at them, and photograph them, no one will find it unusual.”

“I suspect opposition will fasten on the absurdity of imposing this requirement even on people’s home networks. That would be a mistake: if the bill is changed to exempt home networks, it will still be an attack on our freedom. We must oppose the bill head-on, not get sidetracked into quibbles about details.”

“This good cop-bad cop routine has gotten very, very old. Anyone in open source who deals with Microsoft knows what they are walking into. Stop pretending to be our friend.” http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3802

“Contrast that with why the economy here is so bad– a lot of folks want it to be the way it was a hundred years ago. Those days aren’t coming back, and they weren’t that great anyway.” http://linuxtoday.com/news_s…

“All those emigrants flooding to this beautiful new unspoiled land, and then doing their best to ruin it beyond repair. Real life is adaptation and change; pining for the old ways doesn’t accomplish much.” I love Carla Schroder’s essays.

The criminal enterprise known as Microsoft finds itself embarrassingly exposed in the courtroom, for the IRS belatedly (decades too late) targets the company in an effort to tackle massive tax evasions

A look at some of last week's patent news, with imperative responses that criticise corporate exploitation of patents for protectionism (excluding and/or driving away the competition using legal threats)

Vista 10 to bring new ways for spies (and other crackers) to remotely access people's computers and remotely modify the binary files on them (via Windows Update, which for most people cannot be disabled)

As Microsoft admits billions of dollars in losses just days before Vista 10 is pushed as a 'free' upgrade, there is no concrete sign that financial recovery is imminent, for the bigger cash cow (Office) suffers a similar fate